Fears that Overcome
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: "I never thought your fear of other intelligent life like the DIgimon would wield an anger so powerful to overcome Phenex. But I think you still won't overcome Amon."
**A/N:** Challenges:

Prompts in Steps Challenge, 4.09 – problematic  
The Crossover Boot Camp, #035 – halting  
Diversity Writing Challenge, d82 – write a crossover  
The Valentines to White's Day Advent 2016, day 12 – write a crossover with the latest non-digimon anime/manga you've watched/read (happens to be Magi in my case)

Some digimon became magi vessels, and some went the other way. :D

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Suguru realises in their first few months together that Kurata was a loose cannon. But he wanted to change that. So he did something that, in retrospect, impinged on basic human rights and took away a chance. But he did it anyway, because loose cannons were dangerous and Kurata was a brilliant man except for that tendency: that fear of all intelligent creatures that weren't human beings…

In the barest sense, Kurata was too valuable a scientist to dismiss, to too volatile a man to leave loose.

So he bound him with Phenexmon. Bound the anger that hadn't yet been born from the fear whose seeds were already dispersed in the soil, because he couldn't dig them out and he wanted to, he very badly wanted to. But that was impossible by the time they met. If he'd been younger, if he'd been a child, then maybe they could have…

But he wasn't. So they couldn't. So he bound him with Phenexmon instead, and it may have never come out into the open, it may have never become an issue…

Except it did.

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Kurata fired his gun on the digimon.

With Phenexmon binding him, that should have been impossible. Except it happened. It had happened and Suguru feared what would happen in the future when the man's first contact with digimon in the digital world and the digital world itself had led to violence that should have been supressed.

He bound the man again and the man changed. His fear stayed. He wished Phenexmon could have sated that fear as well, or their exposure to the digimon, but neither did. He couldn't strike directly anymore, so instead he turned to other venues. He observed them like a man hiding from a bull with a gun, looking for the weakness, looking for a way to overcome them without fighting them directly. And that was still lethal. More lethal, in fact, because he could find a way to destroy the entire lifeline and he wouldn't put it past Kurata at all.

And he wondered if using Phenexmon that first time had been wrong. If he'd rebelled against the block in him, if he was still rebelling. If he could have changed if he hadn't locked that violent side away.

But it was too late now.

And his only consolidation was that Kurata hadn't found the dungeons yet.

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Kurata found a dungeon. And, despite himself, Suguru went with him. Part of him was curious, as to how Kurata would react to the dungeon creatures, to the digimon guardian, to the magic that engulfed them all.

Rather well, surprisingly. And rather badly too. A possibility against the digimon (in general, because the one who surrendered his metal vessel was now in the vessel) – because they weren't the same type of intelligent. Perhaps Kurata didn't see their intelligence at all, but just their use: saw them as weapons against creatures one couldn't fight with their bare hands.

Phenexmon would at least stop him striking the digimon directly. Or so he hoped.

BelialVamdemon may prove to be a problem though.

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BelialVamdemon was a problem. An entire village of digimon destroyed and Kurata had gotten around Phenexmon's restrictions.

And he couldn't hope to keep him on a leash anymore. He had to act directly.

Except he couldn't. The man had been clever. And he – he'd revealed Phenexmon too early. It had cost him the winning hand. It had cost him the battle. It might have even cost him the war.

He was thrown into the dungeon below Yggdrasil's tree, and Kurata went on with his plans.

But at least Kurata had pushed himself too far with that, and he'd wait.

It might take him years, but he hoped the other dungeon capturers would care enough about the digital world and the digimon to stop him.

And he hoped they wouldn't fail, like him.

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For a few years, he didn't hear much. More dungeons being conquered. He hoped most of them were on Satsuma's side. If not all of them.

And then he heard one that made him proud and worried him as well.

His son, Masaru, had conquered a dungeon. Amonmon.

He only wished he could have told Masaru everything before, so he'd be more informed.

He could only hope, now, that Masaru could make the right decisions without all that information that was his right. If he could find the path that had eluded him – even if it shouldn't have been his responsibility to begin with.

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Masaru had come to the digital world. And another boy, with a Gaomon. And they picked up a digi-egg and took it back. So he assumed they were with Satsuma, following Satsuma.

So that was two people against Kurata. Hopefully.

And then they came back, with a girl, and with Kurata.

And he was very worried. Because things could potentially end with that visit.

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Things almost ended with that visit. He wished Yggdrasil would release him but he would not. So he could only listen to the reports.

It almost ended, but not quite. And he didn't know if it was Phenex's bonds or something else that had saved their lives. Or the simple fact that they were humans.

But their weapons were seized. And locked away.

Even Amonmon. And he'd heard of that legendary, always burning, fire. Hope if Phenex was the pure babe of life.

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They escaped. He laughed in relief. They escaped and stole their partners, their powers, back. And they ran away to the digital world.

And they were coming to rescue him.

That bit worried him a bit. Yggdrasil was not pleased and had sent his sentries out. Each of them powerful. Each of them having conquered a dungeon of their own. Each of them defeated. Two of them destroyed.

They'd gotten so strong, his son and his friends…

They made it all the way to the base of the tree because Yggdrasil himself came down.

Yggdrasil who was more than happy to drop the hammer of vengeance onto the human world.

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He listened to the argument. They'd defeated Kurata as well. Kurata and Belial, and the second dungeon he'd conquered too and the monster that had arose. But that monster had destabilised the human world. They'd fled to the digital world, yes, but they'd gotten stronger and gone back. Kurata had gone down in the human world. And then they'd come back because both worlds were still in danger, because Kurata had struggled to destroy what he feared, what he hated, and those strikes had gone everywhere and destabilised everything.

Suguru wondered if that was Phenexmon's influence as well. If Phenexmon was more fickle than had initially appeared, or Kurata's fear and hatred had deeper roots he'd never bothered to search for.

And it was far too late to think about those things now.

That man was one who could have been a friend, except they'd never really had the chance, despite all the time they'd spent together.

Maybe Kurata had known all along what he'd done to him, with Phenexmon.

Or maybe Phenexmon had twisted them both more than they'd known.

Maybe all of them had been twisted. At least, that was Yggdrasil's argument against their continued existence.

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Amonmon was different. Or maybe it was Masaru who was different. But they were a hope that hadn't been warped. They were a hope that managed to burn through doubts and despairs and the limitations that restricted them all. That was a hope that even managed to burn the god of the Digital World, and win both the battle and the war.

And he couldn't have been prouder of his son – and sadder, that he'd failed to be that example, that he'd fuelled the problems: Kurata…and Yggdrasil as well. And he'd caused the people he loved to suffer for it, even if it might have been unavoidable, even if it might have been better, or worse.


End file.
